Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Warlord Wednesday: Sins of the Father... (part 2)

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Sins of the Father...Fate of the Son" (part 2)

Warlord Annual #4 (1985)

Written by Cary Burkett; Penciled by Pat Broderick; Inked by Bob Smith.

Synopsis: The Evil One flies around doing some low level terrorizing before magicking himself up a tower.

Meanwhile, Jennifer and Morgan arrive in the magical realm under the river where Morgan tossed the Hellfire sword. They make their way to a castle: the place of the Keepers. A woman greets them and takes them for an audience with the queen.

The beauteous queen knows what the two are there for. She likes Morgan and would grant him the sword but there’s someone else that wants to claim it: Dagon Soul-Stealer, King of the Undead. He’s defeated all other would-be claimants so far. Morgan agrees to fight him, and the queen whisks him away to the land of the undead. The hellfire sword is there, stuck in a rock—but this guy's there too:

Morgan, not wanting to waste any time, shoots Dagon right between the eyes—to no effect. Morgan is on the defensive until gets Dagon to follow him up a cliff, where he’s able to get the Undead King off balance and knock him into a pit of spikes below.

Morgan moves to claim the hellfire sword—but Dagon bursts forth from the pit! He’s got Morgan and plans to finish him off with the hellfire blade. As if it has a mind of its own, the sword slips from his grasp and falls within Morgan’s reach. Morgan snatches it up and decapitates Dagon with it.

The queen explains that the sword chose Morgan. His life force was stronger, and the sword feeds off life force. The blade reclaimed Morgan and will forever belong to him and his heirs.

Morgan and Jennifer are transported back to Skartaris. Ashir points out the Evil One’s tower to them:

Jennifer and Morgan head out for the tower. They don’t notice Tinder tagging along behind them, concerned for his friend, Chakka.

TO BE CONTINUED

Things to Notice:

There's a sword driven into an anvil in the castle of the Keepers that looks familiar.

Notes:

One wonders what the personification of Death Morgan met in previous issues thinks about this king of the undead? "Dagon" is the name of Semitic fertility god.